Viability of sawdust briquettes for rural Ghana

The growing demand for solid fuels in the developing world has begun to place enormous pressure on natural resources with an especially heavy toll on the forests of sub-Saharan Africa. The main energy sources for much of the developing world are scavenged wood and charcoal. These fuels contribute heavily to indoor air pollution causing 1.6 million deaths annually. In this study we look at the possibility of using waste sawdust from the timber industry as a potential fuel source. We saw that under modest pressure (achievable using hand presses) one can make a durable sawdust briquette capable of withstanding manufacturing, transportation, and final use. These results show promise in the field of biomass briquetting; we can see that high pressure methods that require costly capital investment are not necessary to create a reliable fuel from biomass waste.